Oracle to Buy Social Media Analyst

US-based software giant Oracle is to acquire social media intelligence provider Collective Intellect, which helps users monitor, understand and respond to consumer conversations on social media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Last year, Oracle acquired Endeca Technologies, which offers a suite of products to help companies analyze unstructured data and gather business intelligence. Oracle also owns Art Technology Group (ATG), which develops software to track and analyze online customer behavior, and at the end of May announced it was to buy social media marketing platform Vitrue for a reported $300m.

Boulder, CO-based Collective Intellect was founded seven years ago by Don Springer (pictured), and uses a semantic analytics engine to process tens of millions of conversations daily, in order to determine consumers' intentions and interests and automatically identify emerging trends.

Oracle says that by integrating Collective Intellect with its own SaaS products and social media platform it can help marketers respond quickly to customer feedback, generate targeted leads and opportunities for sales teams, and build more effective brands.

Thomas Kurian, EVP, Oracle Development, comments: 'Gaining intelligence from consumer conversations across social media, and knowing customers' intentions and interests helps organizations create better products and deliver better service. Collective Intellect's cloud-based applications for social media monitoring, combined with Oracle's social relationship platform offers a complete social experience to our customers.'

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year, and until the transaction closes, Oracle and Collective Intellect will continue to operate independently.

Web sites: www.oracle.com and www.collectiveintellect.com .